


A Piece of Work

by AlterEgon



Category: Emelan - Tamora Pierce
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 08:16:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8883562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlterEgon/pseuds/AlterEgon
Summary: On the night after the four arrive in Discipline Cottage, before anyone can even guess at what the future will hold for them all, Rosethorn and Lark discuss their new charges and the current situation.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [archiesfrog](https://archiveofourown.org/users/archiesfrog/gifts).



> Dear archiesfrog,  
> I wish you a merry Yuletide and hope that you will enjoy this glimpse.

She heard, rather than saw, Lark drop into her second chair.

Glancing up from her work, Rosethorn couldn't help a grin. Her partner looked more exhausted than one should after spending a little time with a few children.

"What?" she said, amusement clear in her voice. "You _like_ children, don't you?"

Lark gave a snort. "I do," she confirmed. "It's just that this time there are so many of them."

"Not true," Rosethorn pointed out. "We've had the cottage full before. I wasn't the one complaining that the cottage was too quiet not quite a week ago."

There wasn't even a hint of a pause before the response. "Not this young. Not all starting at the same time. And…" she couldn't suppress a sigh, "not this …."

"Diverse?" Rosethorn supplied, arching one of her thin eyebrows. They'd known all of that, of course, when the decision had been made to transfer the children to their care. It was far from an ideal situation, as they well knew, but it was better than the alternative – better than any alternative anyone could think of. It was just that seeing the children interact had really driven it home. They had a large piece of work ahead of them that went beyond providing a safe and stable location away from the main student body to help some mage-born youngsters master their gifts before returning to the dormitory or whatever other place they were destined for.

Lark actually laughed at that. "I assume you could call them diverse, yes," she agreed. "Mila, they couldn't be any _more_ diverse, in fact. A street boy and reformed thief; a trader; a merchant; and the Duke's grand-niece. This is rather like the beginning of some play you'd see at a fair. And not a particularly good one either."

"'Reformed' thief?" Rosethorn asked, ignoring the rest of the statement for the moment.

Lark shrugged. "As far as I know he hasn't actually stolen anything since he arrived at Winding Circle. That's good enough for me."

While she did agree with the sentiment, Rosethorn put on a scowl even though she knew it wouldn't fool Lark, of all people. Still, it didn't do to get out of the habit. "It better stay that way, or he'll wish he'd never set foot into this temple," she muttered. "I won't have any of my students get themselves thrown into prison for theft."

"Ah," Lark said thoughtfully. "So you _are_ going to take him. I almost thought we'd have to send him to Crane to be taught…"

Rosethorn glared at her. "Now you're just being silly," she claimed. "They'd never get along. Crane would pull him out with the roots and leave him on the compost heap." That was unfair, and untrue, and she knew it. Still, there were very good reasons not to have the boy – Briar, she reminded herself, his chosen name was Briar. And wasn't that eerily similar to her own? – taught by Dedicate Crane… not the least of them being the sheer silliness of sending him to another mage for teaching when there was a perfectly good green mage in the house. "Besides, my garden already loves him. If for no other reason than that he is dripping magic all over the place."

Lark's lips twitched. "They all are," she agreed. "We do have to get a grip on that. Niko said he'd take care of it…"

Rosethorn rolled her eyes. "He's going to have to be quick about it. You know our Niko. He's never in one place for long. I'm surprised he hasn't found a way to get someone else to take over Trisana."

"There is no weather mage anywhere within reach qualified to teach the girl," Lark said. "And it's that or he."

The rules, after all, were that the one who found an untrained ambient mage was to stand in as that new mage's teacher until they could pass their student over to a teacher of the same magic. In Tris' case, there was very little chance of the latter happening.

"He is, of course, going to bend the rules as far as he can and do his best to train her while still keeping his freedom and continuing his travels," Rosethorn mused as she went back to cutting leaves. She didn't like it when her hands were idle. "Which means we're probably going to share her teaching."

"Worse things could happen." Lark was smiling again. If the thought of the task that lay ahead of them had seemed daunting for a moment, that moment was gone. "None of them are opposed to learning, as such. And Sandry is perfectly comfortable with taking thread work beyond what is _proper_ for girls of her status, as I hear. She'll be a pleasure to teach."

In fact, they had both been surprised to see some of the girl's work when she had unpacked it to use as decorations. The piece she had given away earlier that day was splendid, too. That wasn't a kind of skill one acquired at such a young age by limiting needlework to the times appropriate as a lady's pastime. Not even when one was a stitch witch – or going to be one with some training.

And that left…

"We need to find someone for Daja. It shouldn't be hard … there are enough smith mages among the Fire dedicates that could teach her. Who'll be the best-suited, though…"

They exchanged a look. While they knew that her magic went to smithcraft, they had no details just yet. As a Trader, Daja hadn't been given much opportunity to explore her magical affinity. Not enough, in any case, to show a clear preference for one aspect or one type of metal.

"Not one who'll look down on Traders in any case," Lark said. And that in itself made things a bit difficult. Prejudice ran deep, and mages were no exception there. Noticing that the other woman was almost done with her chopping, she reached for a container and handed it to her.

"Let's give her the opportunity to explore," Rosethorn suggested, nodding as she started to fill the little jar. "She'll find the forges – or her magic will. She might find her teacher all on her own there. Who knows…" she looked at her lover again, her eyes sparkling. "Maybe she's even _that_ special."

Lark returned a grin. She knew exactly what Rosethorn meant. Frostpine, one of the Fire dedicates, had been looking for an apprentice for longer than either of them had been in the temple. Not any apprentice that was – he had had plenty of those. What he was hoping to find was an apprentice who shared his own peculiar brand of smith magic, able to work all kinds of metal rather than being limited to one streak of smithcraft.

"If she is, the teacher will find her," she replied as she pushed back her chair and got to her feet. "In any case, it won't happen tonight… and the same goes for everything else."

"Other than sleep," Rosethorn pointed out. "Sleep should definitely happen tonight." She capped and labelled her jar. "Now's as good a time to start on that as any. I can clean the rest of this up in the morning."

"Really?" Lark asked, then smiled. "Actually, you're perfectly right. Let's start working on that right away." She went to open the door and held it open.

Rosethorn joined her. "Who knows when we'll have a quiet moment again, with those four under our roof..."


End file.
